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Diligence, doing right and ingenuity are the three core elements for success in medicine, according to surgeon ATUL GAWANDE. In his latest book, Better: A Surgeon's Notes on Performance, he examines how well doctors do their jobs and how they could improve their craft. He talks about doctors’ best intentions and the sometimes triumphant, sometimes disappointing results and describes some of the remarkable levels of care that can be achieved by even the most mundane practices in hospitals from Boston to rural villages in India. Better: A Surgeon’s Notes on Performance is published by Profile Books.

To mark the bicentenary of the abolition of the slave trade, WILLIAM HAGUE discusses his new book, William Wilberforce: The Life of the Great Anti-Slave Trade Campaigner. He tells the story of the non-career politician who shunned all honours, yet became one of the most influential Britons in history and one of the finest parliamentarians of all time. He not only worked to eradicate the slave trade, he also worked to transform the nation’s manners and morals and became embroiled in the affairs of Queen Caroline. His behaviour and the ideas he upheld led William Cobbett to describe him as a ‘consummate hypocrite’. William Wilberforce: The Life of the Great Anti-Slave Trade Campaigner is published by Harper Press.

The historian LINDA COLLEY traces the extraordinary life of Elizabeth Marsh, the daughter of a ship’s carpenter who travelled to four continents and took on long, dangerous sea voyages in the 18th Century. She was seized by a Moroccan Sultan, journeyed overland in India beyond the boundaries and safety of British-controlled territory and survived her husband’s bankruptcy – twice! Linda Colley argues that this biography reveals how the forces of globalisation were gathering pace and changing lives. The Ordeal of Elizabeth Marsh: A Woman in World History is published by Harper Press.

The Nigerian playwright and novelist BIYI BANDELE has drawn on his father's experiences fighting for the Allies in Burma for his new book, Burma Boy. It's a dark, but also darkly humorous tale, of the men who left Africa to fight for king and country in Asia. Burma Boy is published by Jonathan Cape.